TLS Books

So the Babies are doing great with their reading! Samantha recognizes and knows the sounds of all the letters. And she is recognizing and "building" sight words. Anyway, she really enjoys written work, and I want her to learn to write the letters and do fun "worksheet" activities without paying teacher prices, so I decided to look online and I found a FREE website. You CAN opt to donate a few dollars. Anyway, it has worksheets for grades pre-k through 6th grade. It has such a wide range of subjects from the standard alphabet and language to foreign language and holidays. It even has printable flashcards for colors and numbers and such and has word lists with need to know pre-primer words and such. I am so excited!!! 

http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolworksheets.htm

Week 12: Father's Day

Father's Day was a little mixed up, since they weren't actually lessons, and she did them after Jessie got home. 

Monday: We read the book "Papa and Little Loon" from the Imagination Library. We would have read "I Love You, Daddy Bear," but I couldn't find it! We read it a few nights before and I set it out because I knew we'd be reading it soon...Now I can't find it. 

Tuesday: Samantha spent some time with Daddy. :) She had him be her Baby. They played doctor and then she they played House. 

Wednesday: We did a Father's Day booklet. There were several pages. The first page I typed HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO A GREAT DAD, and I had them trace over the letters. They both did very well. The second page was a picture of Samantha and Jessie the day she was born and then a recent one. For Brennon, since I didn't have any picture of him and his Dad together, I did one of his as a Baby and then one  recent one I took. The next page I did a poem and then their hand and foot prints. They colored a picture on the next page, and then Samantha did a page filled with coupons and a pocket full of stuff she wanted to give him like a penny and a coloring page. Brennon's had a message to his Dad on the back.  It said, "I got a new toy, oh and I Love you." 

Thursday: We made Jessie a special dinner. 

Friday: They watched a movie together, Jessie's choice. 

This week is Summer Fun!!! 


Also, there is a picture of Jessie's Father's Day Gift. It is a gas grill. It has a HUGE burger capacity. Top racks for cooking things like corn or keeping buns warm. It also has a side gas burner in case you want to make chili or something. He LOVES it! 

She put him down for a nap. 

The top one is Samantha's. The bottom is Brennon's. 

Jessie's Father's Day Gift. Him and my Brother made dinner that night. 

Week 11: Earth's Plants

This is the lesson we skipped awhile back because Jessie was on vacation. I was so excited to get to do this one finally. 


Monday: We read the book "Oscar Otter." It wasn't necessarily about plants, but it showed pictures of a bunch of different plants and we were able to talk about them as we read. The pictures were very detailed and they included things like Lily Pads and Cat Tails, flowers, etc. 

Tuesday: We planted flowers, which have already started sprouting!!! How exciting! It has only been a few days. 

Wednesday: I drew a tree and the Babies colored the trees and used the leaves that we went outside to gather and glued them on the page where the leaves go. 

Thursday: We used different snack foods to make a flower, and then we ate them. 

Friday: We watched an episode of Sid the Science Kid about the importance of leaves. 

PS Next week are Father's Day festivities! 

The Babies Together-They are so cute!!!

My Flower

Samantha's Flower

Week Nine: Polar Climates and Week Ten: Space

Monday: We read the book "First Book About Animals of the Polar Regions," another book we checked out from the Library. It was pretty much the same format as last week's book. Same author and everything, different information. 

Tuesday: We went "Ice Fishing" in the bath tub. I just dumped in a bunch of ice and ran a little cold water. I bought one of those cheap fishing poles at the dollar store. I wish I could have found a different one though because this one was sort of difficult for Samantha. You actually had to hook the fish. I wanted a magnetic one or something a big easier. It was actually hard for me, but she REALLY enjoyed the activity. She didn't want to stop. 

Wednesday: We did "Ice Paintings." You are supposed to freeze ice and stick a popsicle stick in it, but that didn't work, but they really enjoyed having the cold ice on their hands. They turned out pretty well, but just a little advice, don't use children's finger paints from Crayola. Since they are supposed to wash off easy with water, the paint didn't want to stick to the ice cubes. Ha Ha. I should have thought about that.

Thursday: We made ice cream in a baggie! YUM!

Friday: We watched Ice Age. I figured that would be fun, to watch an actual movie, not just a TV show. We are also going to rent the rest from Netflix and watch them all over time. 


This week we didn't do much. Things are back on track, but I haven't been able to go to the store and pick up supplies for art or baking because we are in a terrible heat wave. It's awful! At 8:30 last night, it was 94 degrees! I am just not used to that!!! 

Monday: We didn't get to read a book. We didn't make it to the library. :( 

Tuesday: We went outside and talked about the moon and starts, and even the sun. 

Wednesday: I drew out a "planets diagram," and had her practice drawing circles. Then she got to color the planets. 

Thursday: We did not bake...

Friday: We watched Cilou, the space episode. 

They were telling each other the ice was cold.

Reading Progress

Samantha has really impressed me with her progress on reading these past few weeks! We only work on it a few days a week since my little brother is here on Tuesday and Thursday. I didn't think we were getting much done, but the last few days she has really shown me her knowledge. She will randomly "build words." Yesterday she spelled C-A-T. (Then when she realized I was listening she started saying, "C-A-T-I-O. lol) She was also making letters with her colored pencils yesterday. She would say, "That is an N." I looked over, and sure enough, she had made an N with her colored pencils. (Not writing. She was just putting them together to make letters.) She made all kinds of letters. We also like to use flash cards. She will quiz me and I will quiz her. She has the first few letters now like it's nothing. She will say, "That is the letter C. C says "c" like in cake." Then on to the next letter. Today I think we are going to have a letter day. Watch the Little Leap Letter Movie on Netflix. Play some Word World games online, and hopefully the Word World book I ordered will be in today. I also cleared off the refrigerator so that we can do the letter magnets and maybe finger paint some letters on there. I guess I should go get everything set up before she wakes up though.

Also, I will be posting week 9's lessons at the end of the week with my Week 10 post. I got a little behind this weekend because the holiday and all.  

Update: Samantha did great yesterday! She started sounding out words with me! She didn't do so well with the fingerpaints, but it was fun for her, and that is all that matters. We did magnets, paints, movies, games, books. I can't wait to have another Word Day when she starts to improve even more. We are one step closer to that Library Card! 

Her first word she sounded out was POT.

We learned Big letters and Little letters.

After doing her day's lesson on Space, she started to play with her crayons again and make letters.

 

Week Eight: Temperate Climates

Long story short, again, off week, for the same reason as last. I just don't like these topics for her age. Guess I'll have to think in through better next time. I am pretty excited about next week though. Maybe it will be a little bit better. 

Monday: We read the book "First Book About Animals of the Plains," a book we checked out from the Library. It was alright. Not my favorite. It was simple though, and easy for her to understand. 

Tuesday: We went outside. We didn't do much with this activity, so I didn't get any pictures. I basically just talked about the climate we live in and the different animals in our climate.

Wednesday:Brennon joined us again this day. We just colored some pictures of animals of the grasslands.

Thursday: We did not do a baking activity. I couldn't find one, and wee will be doing something Saturday night for our Family Reunion on Sunday anyway. It is sort of like a potluck.

Friday: Sid the Science Kid The Bug Club...We have bugs here...Trust me, it isn't easy finding interesting children's videos on climates...I am using my resources here. lol. 

Library Fun

I really want to get Samantha familiar with the library, so I thought a bi-weekly trip would help. (If I could drive, we would probably go twice a week, but I know Jessie doesn't want to spend all his free time at the library, so we are going every other week.) I am going to get two weeks' worth of books for her lessons each time we go. This week we got "My First Book..." about plains and one on the arctic. We also got a DVD that goes over the sounds of each letter, and then I got a book on "The First Year of Homeschooling." They didn't have any about curriculums, so I figured I would get the book this time, and then next time I will get online and have the library order one from another location.

Samantha had a blast. She stayed quiet and she sat at a table with Daddy and they read books. He said he must have read a million books, and she sat quietly for each one of them! She LOVES to read. And I found out that she can get a card now. She doesn't have to wait until she is in school. She will be SO EXCITED to get her own card. I just know it! I am excited too. 

They were reading. It was real sweet.